The Life & Times of the Real Robyn Hoode

1420).

Introduction: Literary Archaeology

"Many talk of Robin Hood, that never shot in his bow:

And many talk of Little John, that never did him know."

(Early Proverb from ‘Life & Ballads Of Robin Hood’ & first written by ‘Skelton’ in a play for Henry VIII.)

Imagine a situation where an archaeological excavation is nearing its end. In the sides of the trench are the layers of the ages, starting with modern day at the surface and getting older the deeper below ground you go. Eventually you reach a new surface at the bottom of the trench which is the natural undisturbed earth. This is where the oldest material remains to be excavated.

Now apply this to a story. Let’s say: Robyn Hoode pulls onto his drive in his sports car, switches off his mobile phone, grabs a musket and a kite shield from the back seat, gets out and walks into his timber ‘motte and bailey’ castle through the port-cullis.

Putting these items into date order is relatively simple for an archaeologist or historian: mobile phone (Modern), driveway (Post-War), vintage sports car (Early 19th Century), flint lock musket (17th Century), port-cullis gate (14th Century), motte and bailey castle (12th Century), and kite shield (11th Century). If you were looking for a real ‘medieval’ Robyn Hoode you could immediately rule out the phone, driveway, car, and musket. Going further, it is unlikely that he would own a castle with a port-cullis, and the same rationale applies, even if the ‘motte and bailey’ were to be ‘in period’, as you are principally looking for a noble forester knight, leaving only the kite shield as a potentially ‘original’ or ‘real’ element in this made-up version of a modern day Robyn Hoode story.

So our process is, in simplest terms: First eliminate the most recent story elements (the ‘upper layers’), secondly examine the plausibility of items which may be close to the period (the ‘lower layers’), and finally look at the oldest surviving material to form a picture of the first stages of the story under examination (the ‘final ground surface’). This creates a ‘master story’ or ‘back story’ from which all the writers are working and stands the greatest possibility of being true. If it were Biblical material then it could be called the ‘Q’ or ‘Quell’ (meaning ‘Source’) manuscript of his complete life story.

To this we could add an ‘archaeological survey’ of the overall ‘plot’ elements, similar to an overall site survey or desk-top evaluation of an archaeological site, to see if they produce a chronology ‘in time’ and give clues to location or ‘place’. We would now have ‘time and place’ information to add to the life story.

Further add to this a huge element of common sense and a good knowledge of the periods in question and there is just the possibility that the truth about the real Robyn Hoode will emerge.

However at the moment the authentic elements of this story are scattered over hundreds of surviving tales and ballads spanning over nine hundred years of repetition, popular printing, tampering and embellishment.

In the past chroniclers and story tellers had a habit of reinventing earlier material to fit the times in which they lived (which happens even today), however there was an unwritten rule that the foundational characters and well known material should always remain familiar and un-changed – a kind of ‘unspoken copyright’ amongst bards and story-tellers and ‘authenticity of story’ was also expected by audiences. Messing with the basic plot, characters and story was simply not approved of. This didn’t rule out additions but, at the time the story was ‘performed’, these would have been obvious and treated as humorous by audiences, rather like the modern story invented for this introduction.

Tradition plays a hefty part when examining the past. Things didn’t change as quickly as we are used to in the modern age. In some cases it could take three or four generations for things to ‘wear out’ and general society to move on. The majority of the ordinary population lived at one location and rarely ventured far from home. This is seen quite clearly in the tales of Robyn Hoode who appears to be virtually trapped in a particular geographic region and made to live over an impossibly long time period due to the ancient tradition of naming the eldest son after the father, and then also that of heroic characters adopting the names of similar predecessors. Even personal names were not established in medieval times. Famous names and nick-names were frequently adopted, especially those from well known tales, and land owners often moved stories around their various land holdings which is how some Robyn Hoode stories end up down south on estates owned by the Northern Barons.

There are also two issues of date to factor in: When exactly does our source material survive from? And what internal dating evidence do we have for actual story time-periods and chronology? As far as Robyn Hoode is concerned the answers here are surprising.

Material survives from within a few hundred years of the events it claims to record, and it is relatively simple to deduce what material was ‘current’ at this time and, therefore, what material was ‘added in’ to ‘modernize’ the tales for new audiences. The best example of this tampering would be the later changing kings and locations applied to the more recent versions of the stories. Across the board there are far more numerous and consistent references to the same early kings in surviving tales than later ones.

The other surprise is that the various references to ‘time’ scattered across the earliest stories can actually be brought back together to give a linear chronology that doesn’t contradict itself. In short – it almost miraculously re-creates the framework of the original complete life story now lost.

Then the next step is to move this chronology around until the ‘facts’ of history, as independently recorded elsewhere, line up with the story – and this is also surprisingly possible (as this book will demonstrate). So effective and concrete is the end result that this author is almost certain there once existed a complete original 13th century ‘Q’ manuscript ‘Complete Life Of Robyn Hoode’ written shortly after his death (possibly by someone who knew his surviving family and associates) from which all early tales were later taken.

Another simple equation assists us in our discovery of time period – simple mathematics! If, for example, there were thousands of publications and individuals carrying the name ‘Robyn Hoode’ (or similar spelling variations) in the 15th and 16th Centuries (the ‘Age of Printing’), it would be expected that this was the result of manuscripts and story-tellers of the 14th Century.

If there were hundreds of these manuscripts and individuals using variant names of ‘Robyn Hoode’ in the 14th Century this could only be the result of the monastic writers, bards, performers, and story tellers of the 13th Century, even more so if such material was mainly utilized by noble families as it would take even more time to ‘devolve’ down to the general population.

If then, there were dozens of examples of the use of the tales and name of ‘Robyn Hoode’ in the 13th Century, mathematics dictates that the single origin of both the story and the named individual must belong to the 12th Century, any later period can be rejected simply on the grounds that the individual and his story would not have had any time to become established or to be disseminated far and wide. This is precisely the pattern we find with Robyn Hoode and it leads us back to the early 12th Century - exactly the period in which the majority of the old tales place his life.

In modern times we also have the advantage of the widest possible research base in the history of mankind – the internet or ‘World Wide Web’. This means that scant and incomplete material which would take the antiquarians of past ages a lifetime to collect is now available to trawl by electronic means in just a few days. While all relevant material is not on the internet as some remains in private libraries, that used as the basis for the generally known story is available and it is this story that principally concerns us here. However I have, where possible, also accessed private material and alternative translations and these have added rare additional details to this book. New discoveries and translations also appear quite regularly as small published articles on the internet.

So the work here represents the first ever full archaeological assessment and survey of the oldest remaining Robyn Hoode material to survive (with a special emphasis on anything before 1650), the first ever attempt to reach a workable and authentic chronology that fits known historic facts from other recognized and contemporary sources, the first ever national British geographic assessment in the light of all the facts this presents, and the first attempt to authentically ‘pin down’ Robyn, his associates, and his family, in the light of all that has been discovered.

I must warn the sceptics that the level of detail and consistency that this process has thrown up is very difficult to deny or disprove.

To make the process even simpler I have placed all original source texts relating directly to the life of the real Robyn Hoode in Bold Type, so it can be read as a complete separate narrative if desired, and all the source manuscripts and quotes are in Italics.

Furthermore, I would hope that literary archaeology should result in the same basic foundations being discovered in a story even if entirely new material should come to light at a later date. It should still ‘fit the picture’ when the basic elements are examined. And therein lies a challenge for scholars in the future.

I have no doubt that this book will be taken apart by ‘experts’ and applied to various fields of specialty to test its ‘validity’ – but it is my hope that eye-brows are raised when they find that it is indeed possible that we have arrived at the original, underlying, ground into which the first foundations of ‘The Life & Times Of The Real Robyn Hoode’ were laid out all those many centuries ago.

MARK OLLY – SUMMER 2014.

Rising Mists On The Cheshire Plain.

"If any reader please to try,

As I direction show,

The truth of this brave history,

He’ll find it true, I know."

‘A True Tale Of Robin Hood’ by Martin Parker, published 1632.

1

A Working Chronology for The Life & Times of the Real Robyn Hoode

"I kan noght parfitly my Paternoster as the preest it syngeth,

But I kan rymes of Robyn hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre."

"I do not know my paternoster (prayers) perfectly as the priest sings it,

But I know rhymes of Robin Hood and Ranulf, Earl of Chester."

Piers Plowman (spoken by ‘Sloth’), William Langland C1362.

The following book represents a reconstruction of a time-line for the life and times of the real Robyn Hoode based on actual known historical events and the associations given to them by the early tales of Robyn Hoode. To this has been added a measure of geographic knowledge to create a realistic life story, with many additional elements from the earliest surviving literature about him, and archaeological notes where relevant. Attention has also been given to the development of relevant early Medieval ‘orders’ such as Hospitallers, Templars, Crusaders, Foresters, Yeomen, Monastic Orders, etc. and to those noble families and Northern Barons with known associations to the early tales.

My apologies if the time-line format or ‘diary style’ approach to organizing Robyn’s life does not appeal to every reader, however there is simply so much material involved that a chronological approach, in the style of such earlier Victorian publications, is felt to be the only practical way to organize Robyn’s life-story, and it should enable any future researchers to find a place in which to insert any new discoveries, or expand on their own particular area of interest.

I have chosen in preparing this chronology of the life and times of the real Robyn Hoode, not to use any sources that can not be academically traced or authenticated to before 1650 unless it is the only material available. Any later surviving sources are given less credence and prominence and are subject to even greater critical scrutiny.

The Reign Of King William II (1087-1100)

Early Medieval times could be summarized as various attempts to put stability into a highly unstable European almost ‘posttribal’ society. The Crusades began this trend when a ‘bored’ Norman aristocracy had simply to find something to do, something worthwhile they could focus on, and they chose what they were best at – conquest! The result was the establishment of a number of Religious and Civil institutions unique to that age and ultimately of importance to the seeker of Robyn Hoode, his men, and his various opponents.

Britain was certainly not immune to these trends. King William I had not entirely succeeded in conquering every corner of a realm containing Saxons, Vikings, Danes, Picts, Scots, Irish, and Welsh, and he had particular difficulties throughout his reign with ‘The North’ which began in the lands above the river Trent and became established and ‘hard core’ north of the river Mersey. This was land formerly held by tribes like the Brigantees and Setanti who withstood the in-flux of the Roman Empire and attempts at invasion by Norwegian Vikings from the West and Danes from the east.

However, the 11th Century closed after the battle of Hastings in 1066 with the early establishment of all things traditionally ‘Medieval’ and with William The Conqueror attacking Chester and the north in the winter of 1072, the famous ‘Harrying Of The North’, during which Viking and Danish settlers were spared, Saxons were slaughtered and dispossessed, and any supporters of King Harold permanently removed (a process most graphically shown by the names and value of lands held in the ‘Domesday Survey’).

A fairly reliable story places King Harold at St John’s Church in